My First Topical Journal With Blended Techniques

This little journal has now become my new favorite, I know I say that a lot but seriously, I really love this one!

 I've blended a couple techniques giving it the best of both worlds, lots of space to journal for the more functional side of things, and paper bags with multiple pockets and a flap for all the artsy-fartsy decorations your little heart desires.

Here's the guts of the book.  Three paper bag pockets that I've gotten put together and covered with decorative papers and two signatures, roughly 6 pages each with some added extras I'll show you a little later on.  

I used chip board to create the cover....

... and created a hidden hinge for the binding.  I have to draw it out in order to get it right, All that scribbling probably makes absolutely no sense but this it was it looks like when it's done.

Once it's all glued together (there's three sheets of paper involved in the above hinge) I add it into the spine of the book.  The outer flaps get glued into the front and back cover of the book while the three central flaps are what hold the paper bag pockets.  The signatures will be sewn in later, between the pockets, like so:

Here it is ready to go:

This is the inside front cover and the first paper bag pocket.  I left it very lightly decorated.  This particular journal is going to a young women who has just suffered a tremendous loss that I can only imagine (and I don't know her very well) so I was very skimpy with the decor.  It's more about the value of journaling to the healing process and if she's ready someday to add some decor then she'll have the space to do so.

Here it is with the flap open.  The butterfly is a belly band tuck point, the bag bottom forms a pocket where I've added a small journal card and the bag itself becomes a pocket where I've put a mat board with a poem.

Here is the back side of the paper bag with another pocket and the start of the first journal signature.  They say coloring is very therapeutic so I've added a couple coloring pages.  This one depicts ocean waves and goes along with the poem in the pocket beforehand.

This first journal signature has a photo album that I've created as well.  There are four flaps with space for photos on either side and it's repeated towards the end of the signature.

Each signature has a poem attached in the center and lots of space to journal.

This is the end of the first journal signature and the start of the second paper bag pocket.

I've added a greeting card in this pocket and a simple piece of decorative paper with space to journal.  No other decorative elements for this pocket.

This is the second signature.  I had a few pieces of paper left from the photo album in the first one so I've added them here.

I have kept the personal touches very minimal but I did make this piece of paper from peppermint patty wrappers, it'll mean something to her.

This is a coloring page that I've added.  The right side is the back of a greeting card that I included into the signature.

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The final paper bag pocket.

I really love the mixed technique in this book, it's so versatile.  When we go on vacation I always come home, buy a photo album that has space next to the pictures and as I add them in I journal our days activities along side the pictures.  This is kind of perfect for that and there's space for all the wonderful pieces of ephemera I pick up along the way.

I will be teaching a Sunday School class starting in October and plan to make journals for the kids with the materials we use in class and lots of extras so they've got a usable journal at class end.

What other topics do you think a journal such as this could work for?